The Secrets for Designing Your Native Garden: Making Ecology Fun and Attractive

In this special presentation we will use the three CNPS gardening principles, (Plant Local, Plant Light and Plant Well), and extend that strategy to give you insider landscaper tips to create year round interest, low water use, designs for keeping rainfall onsite, as well as site-specific solutions for shady sites, narrow side gardens, privacy screening between homes, in pots, and in tight spaces.

We will also take a peek at easy to combine art and plants as well as garden components for habitat and personal enjoyment.

Susan has some specific strategies you can replicate for a DIY approach. This includes how to select the number and type of species based on color theory, and the use of shape, texture and form, as well as repetition and we will show examples of well-planned garden designs based on plant communities. These formulae can be used in your gardens - either in planning a new section or in editing an existing garden.

We will show photos of gardens in their prime and show garden examples for analysis. This is a talk to encourage the new gardener while inspiring the long term native gardener.

Susan Krzywicki is a native plant landscape consultant in San Diego. She was the first paid Horticulture Program Director for the California Native Plant Society, as well as chair of the San Diego Surfrider Foundation Ocean Friendly Gardens Committee. Susan is currently on the Board of Directors for San Diego Canyonlands and is on the Port of San Diego BCDC for the Chula Vista Bayfront. She teaches native landscape design and maintenance at the local adult school for landscape professionals and homeowners.

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